Asiagofestival was born in the sixties thanks to the will and the work of Fiorella Benetti Brazzale – organist, concert performer, composer and teacher native of Asiago, former teacher at the Conservatorio B.Marcello in Venice, founder of the Istituto Musicale Città di Thiene, Director of the Conservatorio A.Pedrollo of Vicenza and titular organist of the Cathedral of Padua – who, with the support of Don Antonio Bortoli’s Parish of St. Matthew, aims to contribute to the defense and dissemination of musical culture by inviting to the Plateau some of the best Italian and foreign performers and groups.
Thus were born the first concert cycles that saw the growth, year after year, of an audience made up of vacationers and locals, who increasingly showed their appreciation for the musical offerings, flocking season after season in ever greater numbers. Benetti and other enthusiasts of the Plateau continued with tenacity and dedication in their purpose, so much so that the concert cycles of Asiago, always with free admission, became in the 1970s one of the national points of reference for sacred organ and choral music, thanks also to the characteristics of the Ruffatti organ and the Cathedral of St. Matthew itself.

Hundreds of performers will be guests at Asiago, including soloists of the caliber of Luigi Sessa, Fernando Germani, Wolfango Dalla Vecchia, Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini, Peter Planjavski, Alessandro Esposito, Lukas, Gaston Litaize, Stefan Klinda, Julius Berger, Wolfgang von Karajan, or groups such as the Solisti Veneti or the Chamber Orchestra of Padua and Veneto, to name but a few.
By virtue of her special sensitivity, Fiorella Benetti Brazzale devotes much attention to composition and improvisation, as well as to the defense of the heritage of local traditional music of “Cimbrian” origin, also conducting various courses in composition, improvisation and interpretive improvement.

Starting in the early 1980s, Don Fernando Pilli, director of the Padua Cathedral Choir, joined Benetti in ‘organizing the Festival; in those years various musical works, especially oratorios, were staged and performed, which met with great public favor.
Asiagofestival now extends over all the municipalities of the Plateau coming to offer nearly fifty concerts over the summer months, managing in this context to give space to young performers and local formations, which alternate with the names already established in the international arena.
This great cultural heritage was in danger of being lost when Fiorella Benetti Brazzale died prematurely in 1992 due to a cardiac arrest that struck her in Asiago Cathedral right at the end of a concert.

Aware of the enormous work and passion employed by Fiorella Benetti Brazzale in her own project, after her passing the friends of the Festival felt they could not let such a wealth dissipate and could not ignore the insistent requests of the affectionate public.
Thus, the “Cultural Association – Friends of Music of Asiago” was founded in 1993. , named after the founder.

Julius Berger, a world-renowned cellist and a person of particular cultural stature, enthusiastically offers his willingness to serve as artistic director of a festival that continues the tradition and spirit of its founder: thus Asiagofestival is able to continue without interruption.
Berger’s activity makes it possible to intensify relations with the Sommerakademie of the Mozarteum in Salzburg and with many artists of international value, both Italian and foreign; moreover, thanks to the renovation of the hall of the former Cinema Grillo Parlante, it is possible to develop the chamber music strand, which is much appreciated by the public.

Thus, in recent years, the likes of Sofia Gubaidulina, Fabio Vacchi, Franco Mezzena, Mario Brunello, Roberto Fabbriciani, Janez Bole with the Slovenian Madrigalists, Patrick Demenga, Stefan Hussong have taken turns on the Plateau, Massimo Scattolin, Jose Gallardo, Hyun-jung Sung, Odile Pierre, Denes Zgysmondy, the Italian Trio, the Parma Trio, the Martinu Quartet, the Tchaikovsky Trio, the Prometeo Quartet, the Terpsycordes Quartet, the Italian String Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Padua and Veneto, Gomalan Brass Quintet, Giselle Herbert, Fabrizio Meloni, Marcello Defant, the Athestis Consort and Chorus directed by Filippo Maria Bressan, the Oktoechos Ensemble directed by Lanfranco Menga, Chen Zimbalista, Marcin Dylla, Stefan Hussong, Melinda Paulsen, Julia Bauer, Domenico Nordio, Ye-Eun Choi, Oliver Kern, Diego Dini Ciacci, Andrea Bacchetti, Sonig Tchakerian, the Groethysen-Tal duo, Gian Battista Rigon, Linus Roth, Umberto Clerici, as well as Julius Berger himself and many others.

Asiagofestival can thus continue under the sign of tradition, offering its audience a series of events in which special attention is paid to the themes dear to its founder: sacred music, contemporary music, improvisation, the proposal of young talents, and the search for programming capable of arousing at the same time the interest of the broader public and the more experienced audience. To this day, the organizational direction of the Festival is carried out by Fiorella Benetti Brazzale’s children and grandchildren.